Djenne Vessel with Scarification Motif

The body speaks before the mouth does. Many West African cultures have long held to this.

The large Djenne jar here, from Mali, 12th to 17th century, carries raised decoration often described as scarification. Potters echoed such body marking in clay. The globular body rises to a short, flared neck, and finely notched ridges divide the shoulder into bands and vertical panels, with small applied dots and stacked horizontal strokes between them. The pale orange clay is chalky and weathered, with chips and abrasions.

Eighteen inches tall. It has volume, and it has a record of every year it has stood.